Venom

United Kingdom, 1979–now

Newcastle band formed in 1979 whose raw, satanic speed-metal albums Welcome to Hell and Black Metal (1982) were so extreme they named a genre. Crude, fast and evil, Venom are the direct progenitors of black, thrash and death metal alike.

Influenced by

• Motörhead
• Black Sabbath

Influenced

• Bathory
• Celtic Frost
• Mayhem
• Darkthrone